Expert: Scott F. Gillman, DC, DACBSP - 2/14/2008

Question
Yesterday I injured my neck when a trampoline fell on my head...don't ask:-{  The entire right side of my neck and down into the back of shoulder is stiff and hurts.  I have been on 800mg of ibuprofen for the last nearly 24 hours and it doesn't seem to be touching it.  I have also, in the last 24 hours, had a cold pack on it for a total of 6 ours.  My question is, do I go see a Physical Therapist or a Chiropractor?

Answer
Rebekah,

First: if there is any chance you fractured a bone, do not take any form of ibuprophen.    A chiropractor is doctor and as such has the duty to examine and diagnose your condition.  If one of the possible diagnosis' is fracture, then the doctor will order xrays.  If you  tests-out like a simple sprain/strain case, then you would be amenable to the various manual therapies and adjunctive physiotherapies that a chiropractor can offer.   This would include some of the same modalities offered in a PT clinic, like electric stimulation or therapeutic ultrasound, or ice packs.   The chiropractor is expert at providing different forms of joint manipulation, and many are also expert in delivering hands-on muscle therapies.  Some DC's will also tandem care with the PT.  I cannot speak for all DC's, but in my practice as in many others, we wear two hats.  One is the doctor's hat where we have the duty to examine and diagnose, and the other is the body-worker's hat, where we roll up our sleeves and provide the manual procedures and adjunctive procedures to help someone get better.  With any soft tissue injuries, an adjunctive tool that may be worthwhile using is low level laser therapy.  If you are a competitive gymnast, and time if of the essence, adding this to your treatent may be beneficial in speeding up healing of any damaged tissue.  You can research this tool via google search (type "low level laser and injuries" or "cold laser").    Lastly, if you go to www.acbsp.com, you can search for DC's that have additional training in sports medicine.  The DACBSP crowd are truly specialists, and the CCSP doc's completed the first 100 hour program.  You can't go wrong with any of the DACBSP's.  These will make more sense when go see the web site.    I hope this was helpful.  

Dr. G